The Amosu (Witch) Mermaid

Before we get into the meat of this episode, let's make some things clear.

In order to understand what I will be talking about in this episode, you will have to do the prerequisite work.

you will have had to have listened to the episode I made last year on witches and debia.

That episode was released last spooky season in season one of the Poppy Walters Grotto podcast.

That episode is titled Amosu vs. Debia, Deconstructing Witches.

If you didn't listen to that episode, and don't know what a witch, an amusu, is from the Igbo cosmological perspective, then you will be lost.

Because in this episode, I will be using the term amusu mermaids.

And I'm being very specific in that.

Because I am talking about amusu, which is the Igbo word for witch and witchcraft.

And I'm really tapping into that specific Igbo context.

I'm not talking about witch as it's defined in mainstream or how people on TikTok would like to have you think what witches are.

Maybe in their cultures, that's what that is.

But I'm specifically speaking from the Igbo perspective and not just the modern Igbo perspective, the cosmological ancient perspective.

And you would only understand what that is had you listened to that episode.

So do the prerequisite work because I will not be giving clarification either throughout this episode.

I'm not going to do that.

I will not break down semantics.

I will not give further context and information.

No, all of that is in that episode from last year.

So listen to that first and then come back here.

Unlike for the other mermaid types, Amusu is actually what the type of mermaid that I'm discussing today would actually refer to themselves as.

That is what they're called, even in their merfolk societies, Amusu.

Now, obviously, that specific term, Amusu, would specifically be for merfolk that are connected to Igbo spirituality, Igbo cultures, okay? Whatever the actual spiritual tradition the mermaid is tied to, they're probably going to use whatever is their equivalent to the term Amusu, right? Understand that.

But this is what they call themselves.

Okay? So basically what I'm saying is that I didn't come up with this term just to make it easier to describe the type of spirit that we're looking into.